(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structure of a board-to-board connector, and in particular, to a plastic housing structure for a board-to-board connector.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, there is shown a conventional plastic housing 1 having a sliding recess 10 for the horizontal mounting of an angular board 11. The inner wall at the two sides of the sliding recess 10 is provided with a protruded lug 14, and the angular board 11 is provided with parallel rows of holes 12 for the mounting of the entire row of guiding pins 13. The protruded lug 14 of the sliding recess 10 provides appropriate clipping to the gliding pins 13. As shown in FIG. 3, the bottom surface of the plastic housing 1 of the connector is provided with three protruded boards 15 arranged in a row. There is a gap formed in between the individual protruded board 15 for the mounting of the guiding pins 13.
FIGS. 2 and 4 show the application of the above structure. The connector is mounted onto a circuit board, and the guiding pins 13 and the circuit board are soldered together by soldering process. Next, a cleaning process is applied and the plastic housing 1 is removed. In view of the first structure, in the process of removing the plastic housing 1, a force is exerted centrally onto the sides of the plastic housing 1 to cause the protruded lug 14 to release the urging force exerted onto the guiding pins 13, and the plastic housing 1 is then smoothly lifted up. In the second structure, the removal of the plastic housing 1 is by the use of robotic arm or it is manually lifted up.
In application, the above conventional structures have the following drawbacks.
1) In the first structure, the angular board has to be mounted horizontally and this is difficult to attain and time-consuming for the reason that the plastic housing and the angular board are very small in size. PA1 2) In the first structure, if the plastic housing is to be lifted up from the circuit board to separate from the guiding pins, a force has to be exerted to the sliding recess. This force is difficult to keep balance and the guiding pins cannot be smoothly separated. PA1 3) In the second structure, the guiding pins are clipped by the force between the boards, if the clipping force is too great, the guiding pins and the plastic housing may not be smoothly separated. If the clipping force is too small, the guiding pins may be dislocated during the soldering process.